Climate Week: Africa and Climate Change: Challenges and Solutions in a Globalized World

Speaker:
Anthony Nyong, Director of Climate Change and Green Growth at the African Development Bank (AfDB)

Speaker Bio:
Bio: Professor Anthony Nyong is the Director of Climate Change and Green Growth at the African Development Bank. He has about 30 years of experience in environmental and natural resources management, environmental and social safeguards, renewable energy and green growth that span academia, private sector and development finance. Positions he has held at the African Development Bank include Coordinator of the New Deal on Energy for Africa; Head of the Renewable Energy Flagship, Head of Gender, Climate Change and Sustainable Development; and Head of Compliance and Safeguards. Before joining the Bank, he was a Senior Climate Change Specialist at the International Development Research Centre of Canada and prior to that, a Professor of Climate Change at the University of Jos, Nigeria.

Prof. Nyong has served on several Global Advisory and Scientific Boards including the Sustainable Stock Exchange Green Finance Advisory Group, the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Agricultural Resilience in Nigeria; WHO Thematic Reference Group on Environment, Agriculture and Infectious Disease; Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel of the Global Environment Facility; the International Human Dimensions Program, Global Environmental Change and Food Systems, and Pan-African committee for the Global Change System for Analysis, Research and Training. He has served on the Boards of the Applied Center for Climate and Earth Systems Science, South Africa and the International Centre for Climate Change and Development at the Independent University, Bangladesh. Nyong is a member of the Planning Committee of the Climate and Health Initiative of the National Academy of Medicine (USA). He was a Coordinating Lead Author for the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and a member of the IPCC Task Group on Data and Scenario Support for Impact and Climate Analysis.

Mr. Nyong holds a Ph.D. in Geography from McMaster University, Canada and a D.Sc. (hc) from the University of Calabar in Nigeria, a post-graduate Diploma from the University of Oxford and a Masters Degree in Land Surveying from Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria. He is a Senior Executive Fellow of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, a Chartered Geographer, a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He is named among the top 20 of the 100 most Influential People in Climate Policy 2019 by Apolitical.

Moderator:
Tukufu Zuberi, Professor of Sociology and The Lasry Family Professor of Race Relations at the University of Pennsylvania

Description:
Studies and forecasts indicate, according to Dr. Anthony Nyong, Director of Climate Change and Green Growth at the African Development Bank, that “While Africa bears a considerably large proportion of the impacts of climate change, it also has opportunities to enable it transition to a more sustainable growth pathway.” Dr. Nyong will discuss the effects of Climate Change in Africa and steps that encourage sustainability in Africa and thus resilience to Climate Change. These steps can lead to  transformation and transition to green economies in the continent with positive global implications.